This plaque is embedded in the sidewalk on the Tremont Street side of the Parker House. It's easy to miss - who looks down while walking down that particularly busy sidewalk? - but once you see it, you just know you have to stop and take a look.

And for years, your view was, in fact, of Old North Church, just to the left of City Hall. But now, well, look at what Aaron Helfand saw this morning when he stood on the plaque and looked out:

P-3 Partners, which has the city nod to build a large mixed-use development on what has become an urban wild across from Boston Police headquarters on Tremont Street, has until Sept. 18 to "articulate a clear funding plan and demonstrate concrete interest on the part of prospective retail, office, and commercial tenants," the BRA says.

After years of ground going unbroken, the BRA in June had given P-3 until last Thursday to come up with this plan for its proposed Tremont Crossing; on Thursday, the BRA voted to give the development group one more month.

Patrick Kineavy and Alex Lovejoy of the MBTA recently explored a long-abandoned fallout shelter next to an abandoned trolley tunnel under Tremont Street (the one you see on the right on the inbound platform at Boylston).

Filene's, Jordan Marsh, Gilchrist's, even Woolworth, all names from downtown's past now. But don't forget R.H. Stearn's, at Tremont and Temple Place, which once rivaled Filene's and Jordan Marsh as a regional retailing company.

Its flagship ten-story building, finished in 1909, still stands at Tremont Street and Temple Place. Even the original metal awnings are still there - although somebody, for some reason, removed the "R.H." from them sometime after the store closed in 1978.

A group of seven descended on a man and woman walking in Downtown Crossing Friday night and stopped beating the man only when they heard police sirens approaching, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

The Bay State Banner reports the membership discount store has agreed to move into the mixed-use development that looks like it might finally get built on the parcel across from the police headquarters on Tremont Street that has been vacant for so long it has trees growing on it.

Boston Police report arresting two men from out of town on charges they kept throwing drinks on a man trying to get his dance on inside Royale, 279 Tremont St., and then, when they were done, beat him up.

Police said the victim looked up after having "several drinks thrown at him" around 1:20 a.m.: